| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: part even throwing down their shields and spears.
On the last scene of that dreadful fight I need not dwell. It
was a slaughter great and grim, in which no quarter was asked
or given. One incident, however, is worth detailing. Just as
I was hoping that it was all done with, suddenly from under a
heap of slain where he had been hiding, an unwounded warrior
sprang up, and, clearing the piles of dying dead like an antelope,
sped like the wind up the kraal towards the spot where I was
standing at the moment. But he was not alone, for Umslopogaas
came gliding on his tracks with the peculiar swallow-like motion
for which he was noted, and as they neared me I recognized in
Allan Quatermain |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll: tell you the names of some of them.'
`Of course they answer to their names?' the Gnat remarked
carelessly.
`I never knew them do it.'
`What's the use of their having names the Gnat said, `if they
won't answer to them?'
`No use to THEM,' said Alice; `but it's useful to the people
who name them, I suppose. If not, why do things have names at
all?'
`I can't say,' the Gnat replied. `Further on, in the wood
down there, they've got no names--however, go on with your list
Through the Looking-Glass |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: he was hurrying for his horse.
He left Ord, ostensibly toward Bradford, but, once out of
sight, he turned off the road, circled through the brush, and
several miles south of town he struck a narrow grass-grown
trail that Fletcher had told him led to Cheseldine's camp. The
horse tracks along this trail were not less than a week old,
and very likely much more. It wound between low, brush-covered
foothills, through arroyos and gullies lined with mesquite,
cottonwood, and scrub-oak.
In an hour Duane struck the slope of Mount Ord, and as he
climbed he got a view of the rolling, black-spotted country,
The Lone Star Ranger |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence: He put aside the thorns, and took out the eggs, holding them
in the palm of his hand.
"They are quite hot--I think we frightened her off them,"
he said.
"Ay, poor thing!" said Mrs. Leivers.
Miriam could not help touching the eggs, and his hand which,
it seemed to her, cradled them so well.
"Isn't it a strange warmth!" she murmured, to get near him.
"Blood heat," he answered.
She watched him putting them back, his body pressed against
the hedge, his arm reaching slowly through the thorns, his hand
Sons and Lovers |
